Through Time
by Patrykowski
Summary: On a mission for SPD, Red Ranger Sky Tate must travel back in time to prevent Kira Ford from reconvening with her Dino Thunder teammates in the year 2010. The ensuing day would be one he would never forget - even Through Time.


This was a submission for a Valentine's Day non-canon pairing challenge I did _years _ago—after the premiere of "Once a Ranger." I had completely forgotten about it until I stumbled across it while looking for inspiration to get past my writer's block. I completely forgot how much I loved it.

_Through Time_

_**February 13**__**th**__**, 10:37 PM EST**_

_He stared down at his hands, the blood staining them like acid. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. He wasn't supposed to fail. He never failed. Just hours ago, he was with her. Just hours ago, he was laughing at her childish, immature demeanor. Yet here he was, in the present, hours later, clutching the gaping wound in his side. His vision faded in and out of blackness, and when it finally focused, he became nauseated at the dizziness he was going through. _

_ He toppled into a bin and pushed on through the foggy area. The tight red shirt displaying his favorite three letters was torn and frayed on his torso. Part of his bare flesh was visible through several of the large holes that had been ripped into the shirt, and his pants were hardly in any better condition, though they managed to have only small holes. The makeshift bandage he'd made from his jacket was doing a lousy job of holding the blood in, but he pushed on through the smoking alley. He had to find her. He had to. _

_ As if sent by his guardian angel, a park bench that had obviously been moved by a bum came into his swaying vision. Thankfully, he slouched into it, gasping for air. The smoke was slightly clogging his lungs, but he was glad to be alive. For the moment. _

_ "Stay awake. You could have a concussion." _

_ He kept uttering the words to himself, but they were of no use. His eyes slipped down lower and lower until he was brought back to his memories—until he was brought back to the events leading to his current disposition._

Sky Tate, SPD Red Ranger, finished zipping his red and grey uniform shirt and spun to look at himself in the mirror. His tall, solid figure stared back at him with shocking blue eyes, his dirty blond hair flat against his forehead and not yet spiked in its traditional manner.

A knock at the door pulled him from his self-inspection; "Hi."

The Red Ranger looked to the now open door where Sophie, the Green Ranger, stood.

"Hey Sophie, what's up?"

She didn't say much, but she fiddled with her hands a bit and didn't make direct contact with him.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked, stepping up a bit.

She flung her arms around him in a spastic manner, muttering, "What if you don't come back? I don't want you to go!"

Sky hugged her back, and then pulled her back to arm's-length. "Sophie, I'll be fine. Plenty of Red Rangers go on solo missions and come back just fine."

He'd said it so casually, as if the security offered by his Ranger Powers were foolproof. He'd evidently not learned from his father's mistake.

But he made it through the time portal easily enough. His mission had been clear; keep the Dino Thunder team from meeting up in 2010. If they were to meet, the residual energies embedded in their DNA from the Dino Gems would reactivate, sending a shockwave of energy through Earth. Granted, the shockwave, originating in New York, would dissipate with distance and most likely run out of momentum at a midpoint of Kyrgyzstan, the shockwave would most likely result in a massive pull of all debris within a 250,000 mile radius of earth. Kat had explained it in much larger words, stating that the moon could inevitably be pulled into Earth, destroying it. If, however, Sky could manage to delay Kira by one day, the residual energy Kira possessed would eventually expend, as it would mark the 4 year mark of her last contact with her gem.

How history had changed so much was eagerly explained by Cruger; something along the lines of the Dino Rangers having been in touch with their gems again in 2025 still had an effect on their bodies; so, when they went back to their time, residual energies were building up.

So there he sat, poring over the miniscule details of his mission. Apparently, the Dino Rangers made it a regular event to meet up once a year. The location would swap; the first year, 2005, everyone went to Reefside for the reunion and ended up crashing at Tommy's; the second year, Kira had been out towards MIT when she called up Ethan—the others caught first flights in that weekend and the second annual meeting went down. After that event, a schedule was made, and around October 20th, everyone flew out to L.A. to meet up with Conner and take a grand tour of his first Soccer Camp. In 2008, Trent hosted everyone in Chicago where he'd just gotten his dad to endorse his first comic publishing business—DragoDrawings. Last year, Tommy brought everyone back to Reefside, and now, in 2010, it was Kira's turn to allow everyone to stay in the suite she'd rented out in New York. It was up to Sky to make sure it didn't happen.

His Patrol Unit chirped and he knew it was time; Kira was headed out to Starbucks before she'd head to the studio where she had an appointment at 9. She'd record until 12, after which she'd attend a photo shoot for an hour-and-a-half. Shortly thereafter, she'd run home, shower, clean, and prepare to meet Tommy when his flight arrived at 4.

Sky hardly hesitated as he dressed himself in civilian clothing. Well, as close as he was going to get to civilian clothing, that is. He wore a red SPD shirt covered by a black zip-up hoody that Syd had bought him for Christmas that year. Apparently she'd also opted to steal the slacks he'd set in his bag and replaced them with a fitting pair of jeans.

He shrugged. The sooner he finished his mission, the sooner he could get back. He'd been thinking of Syd a lot lately. They'd been dating for a little over 4 months after speaking with Kat to make sure fraternizing wasn't against SPD regulations. Thankfully, Ranger Teams were exempt from that rule…

He made his way down stairs to the lobby just in time to see Kira on the move. He was starting to feel the rush of a mission.

_**February 13**__**th**__**, 8:54 AM EST**_

Kira had been having the dream all too often. He was a guy, not much older than herself, who had the presence of a military officer, but the looks of a pop star. She would only catch glimpses of him, and at the most random time, he would become a ranger—blue at that! She hated the color blue.

But there was something about him that stood out in her mind; his eyes. They were like soul-clenching gems that pinned your own eyes to them. She couldn't forget them no matter how many times she tried to; but when she'd snuck into Dr. O's newly remodeled Dino Lab to re-watch the Ranger History video, she hadn't seen him. She hadn't seen any rangers even resembling his ranger suit. She felt like she'd become possessed by the need to know his identity, and when she casually brought it up to Trent, he shrugged and said he didn't know. She even hinted at it towards Dr. O, who went on a long spiel about mind-manipulation and such, informing Kira that he would know if his memory had been wiped clear of an event.

It wasn't until she'd helped the Overdrive Rangers a few years ago that things came into perspective.

Bridge Carson, SPD Red Ranger, had a suit almost identical to the Blue Ranger's. He had mentioned a man named Sky. And she had remembered that.

She shook herself from her thoughts, grabbing the coffee the Starbucks employee had set in front of her. She thanked him, pulled her jacket closer, and walked out. She didn't notice the man follow her—lots of people were leaving at that time.

But around 2, when he was still following her, she got freaked out.

"Who are you?" she finally asked, spinning around and facing him. She couldn't really make out his face underneath the hood he was wearing, but his stature was a little intimidating.

The man stopped walking and kept his head down. He seemed to be contemplating.

"I'm not going to ask you again; who are you?"

He sighed, looking up at her finally. Her breathing stopped.

"I'm Sky. I'm a fan of yours. I just wanted an autograph."

Her eyes were wide, and she knew he had to have noticed her shock. He was here. He was right in front of her. _Sky_! He was wearing a _red _shirt under his hoodie jacket, and his eyes were the same electric orbs they'd been in her dreams.

"I know you."

He looked genuinely puzzled. "You do?"

"You're from the future, with SPD."

Now it was his turn to be shocked.

"I…what?"

"You're the SPD Red Ranger, Sky. You must be from the future before you're promoted and before Bridge becomes red ranger."

Now he was on the verge of looking sick.

"H-how do you know that?"

"I…am not 100% sure. But…why are you following me? Why are you here?"

He wasted no time telling her his mission. He felt as though he may have been breaching protocol, but the mission had already been compromised. Maybe he could convince her to stay away from the others without having to be sneaky about it.

They wound up in his hotel room, him showing her the readouts, the history—all of it.

"Why do I recognize you?" she asked him abruptly.

Sky looked at her quizzically. He was sat backwards on a chair, facing her as she lie lazily on his bed, a magazine spread out to her right. "I'm not sure."

"Did you ever come to the past?"

"Once. But we erased your memories before we left. You've come to the future, also, although it was against your free-will."

She snorted, "I've been taken many times against my free will."

He cocked his head. "I'm not taking you against your will, am I?"

Laughing, she shook her head, "No, not at all Sky. Actually, I'm pretty comfortable."

He resumed talking at a mile a minute. It was strange. No, beyond strange, that's what it was. He told her about the academy, about Syd, about specifically asking for his mission, and so forth. He even opened up a bit about his dad.

They found themselves at the bar around 5:30. Kira had already called Tommy (who she was apparently "talking to") and told him that she was rerecording and that she would meet up with him and the others around 10 PM that night.

She laughed as she downed the remnants of her Mojito; "So, what did you do then?"

"I dumped the water on her! I mean, I was already irritated that I had to sit around and watch her play in diamonds; she had it coming."

Kira nodded, "I agree."

"What about you? Ever get into fights with your teammates?"

"Oh, all the time. Especially Conner. We're such polar opposites at times that I just felt myself wanting to throw something heavy at him sometimes. Tommy helped keep us under control, though."

"Speaking of Tommy; how did you two end up together? I mean…that sounds…strange to me."

She grinned, "It sounds weird to a lot of people. He flies out a lot to see me, and I him. No one else really knows, but since you don't know about Tommy and me, I'm assuming we don't last very long."

An awkward silence threatened to begin, but Sky fumbled over his words. "Well, I mean, uhm, well, sometimes things change. And I mean, uhm, just because I, you know, don't know, doesn't mean that you two aren't actually, like, together…or something."

She was silent for a few minutes before she erupted into laughter. Maybe the alcohol had her a bit loosened up, or maybe Sky was just genuinely cute and hilarious when nervously tripping over explanations. Either way, she was enjoying herself. "I think I've had enough to drink."

Sky finished his beer, setting it next to the many others; "Yeah, same here. This is the first time I've drank on a mission. Probably the last time, too."

"Is this part of the mission?"

"Maybe."

"Getting me drunk and vulnerable is part of the mission?"

He smirked, "Getting you away from the others was the mission."

"Oh, sneaky. Which side are you on again?"

They chorused in chuckles at their banter and headed back to Sky's room so he could finish telling her about the mission. They'd planned on Kira avoiding her suite and apartment like the plague and just staying in Sky's room. He would return to the future after checkout and things would be fine.

_**February 13**__**th**__**, 10:20 PM EST**_

They hadn't planned on…kissing. They hadn't planned on things escalating far faster than imaginable. They hadn't planned on discussing how open they felt around each other. They hadn't planned on a mob of Xeno robbing a bank.

Sky was on the scene as fast as possible. But he was no match for them by himself. He knew Kira would go to the others. Either that or she would end up meeting the other four ex-rangers, who would instinctively try and head the criminals off.

_**February 13**__**th**__**, 11:40 PM EST**_

Kira found him, asleep on a bench in a dingy alley. There was a large dark spot on his torn red shirt, but he appeared to indeed be asleep. She clutched him tightly as she pulled him up and dragged him to her car. She would take him to the hotel. She would set up his time machine. She would send him back. He had to go back. She couldn't fall for him. She couldn't allow herself to become attached to him knowing full well that he lived 17 years in the future.

She arrived at the hotel around 11:55ish. She'd skillfully covered up his tattered clothes and made it look like he'd been drinking too much. Better that then being severely beaten as a power ranger.

By the time she got him up to the room, it was a bit past midnight. She was safe to call Tommy and the others. She could be with her friends. She would need them.

Sky stirred slightly as she set up the time machine, following the directions it so cleverly came with.

"W-what happened?" he asked, groaning.

"Just lay back down, you're injured. I'm sending you back to your time, I'm sure the medicine is much more advanced."

He didn't object. He knew he had to. He didn't want to. He wanted to stay. He mentally slapped himself. That was ridiculous to think; wanting to stay. He had Syd. What he had with Kira had meant nothing and he was sure that was how she felt. She had the greatest ranger in history, why would she want him? Still, something tugged at him from their earlier conversation about Valentine's Day.

"Be my valentine?" he asked, grinning madly. Maybe he was still in shock.

She found herself laughing incredulously; "What?"

"Before I go back, tell me that whatever happened wasn't pointless, meaningless, or overall 'accidental.'"

She stuttered, "You mean that?"

He sucked in a breath as he stood up and walked to her; "I know this is going to sound hopelessly romantic and so pathetic that I'll probably want to hit myself for it, but: I find myself wanting to stay in this time just so I could see what could become of you and me."

She was silent. She searched his eyes one last time and kissed him as sincerely as she could. "It wasn't pointless. And if I could, I would come back with you—if not to at least see the rockstar me."

He laughed slightly, but not too loudly for fear of hurting his wounds.

"Thank you, Kira."

"And thank you, Sky."

He lingered on his choice of words; "I…I'm supposed to erase your memory."

She bit her lip; "I understand."

"I want you to remember me."

"I wouldn't forget you no matter how many times you erased my memory."

They kissed one last time, and the time portal hummed to life. It was time.

"Don't forget me," she reminded him.

"Not even through time."


End file.
